A Philadelphia man convicted of rape and three other charges in Athens County filed a new appeal brief this past Thursday, asking the court to overturn his conviction. Charles H. Nguyen, 32, was convicted of one count of rape, kidnapping, burglary and tampering with evidence at his trial August 2010, after he raped an Athens woman he met over the Internet.
He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The first appeal was filed to the Fourth District Court of Appeals in September. Nguyen filed a new appeal brief earlier this month, but it was dismissed for being too long. The 55 page appeal, filed May 11, exceeded the brief maximum of 35 pages.
Nguyen’s appeal filed this past Thursday asked to overturn all of his convictions, claiming the victim and witness testimony was contradictory. He also claims that evidence against him was misused, because he and the victim were in a relationship at the time and had slept together a few days before the incident, according to court documents.
He claims that Captain Brian Cooper and Deputy Alan Flickenger, of the Athens County Sheriff’s Office, did not have a right to issue a warrant for his arrest, because they did not review any evidence or interview a witness, according to court documents.
Additionally, Nguyen claims that being convicted of kidnapping and rape is a violation of double jeopardy. He claims that the kidnapping was an action that led to the rape, but not its own action, according to court documents.
He also claims that the court abused its discretion by sentencing him to 30 years in prison.
Nguyen was sentenced to 10 years each for the rape, kidnapping and aggravated burglary charges, and five years for the tampering with evidence charge. Nguyen states that the 10-year sentences running consecutively and the five-year sentence running concurrently is an abuse of discretion, according to court documents.
The court has yet to issue a response to last week’s appeal.
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